The automotive sector and aluminium metal casting

Published - 14th Feb 2017

The automotive industry is the largest single market for aluminium castings. Indeed, cast aluminium transmission housings and pistons have been used in cars and trucks since the early 1900s and nowadays castings account for more than 50% of the aluminium used in cars[1].

So, it’s probably no surprise to hear that Haworth Castings produces a wide range of castings for the automotive sector, including engine parts and steering columns. Our gravity-die castings have even been used in suspensions for mobility cars. Whatever the requirement, our high-definition castings meet the exacting standards demanded by our customers.

The aluminium casting experts

As we’ve mentioned previously in this blog, aluminium alloys are used in most of our metal casting work. These alloys have the ideal properties for automotive components due to their lightweight, cost-effectiveness and excellent thermal properties.

Sand casting offers the most economical and versatile process for low or medium volume requirements. At Haworth Castings, we produce high-quality castings of all shapes and sizes for our customers. This includes parts with highly complex shapes and intricate details, such as engine blocks, cylinder heads and other parts.

We can also produce fully machined components, with accuracies down to +/- 5 microns, using our in-house machining service. So, we can manage the process from the concept stage right through to final delivery.

Quality control is vital at every stage to verify the integrity of each part. If required, we can offer comprehensive non-destructive testing and inspection, including x-ray and crack detection, as well as UKAS-approved independent testing and inspection services.

High-quality aluminium castings

Our customers look to us to produce castings with exceptional definition. As an example, we have been asked to design castings for the automotive sector that are etched with the company name. These parts are often fitted to the front of the vehicle so the wording needs to be extremely well defined for readability and to reflect positively on our customer’s business.

This is only possible due to the expert skills of our engineers and the high quality of the products used in our casting work – including the sand, the bonding agents and the patterns.

Our highly skilled team has many years’ experience in managing this finely balanced process to deliver exceptional results for our customers.

To find out more about our work in the automotive sector, please call us today on +44 (0)1794 512685 or email us: sales@haworthcastings.co.uk

[1] www.aluminium.org